Prepared by teachers in a summer course, this handbook presents brief descriptions of various aspects of reading instruction and related lesson plans and class activities. Sections of the handbook discuss readiness, word recognition, word meaning/vocabulary, comprehension, and reading in the content areas. The handbook also offers brief…

In a discussion of second language vocabulary teaching and learning, the premise is that vocabulary development from context should not be used as a teaching strategy exclusive of other methods, such as direct teaching through word pair translation; rather, these approaches should be seen as complementing each other. Several arguments in favor of…

This teacher's manual is a resource to assist teachers in expanding and refining their repertoire of teaching strategies and to guide them in instructional planning and decision making when teaching reading in the content areas. The manual does not prescribe a particular style of teaching--it is of value to teachers as they consider their…

This workbook offers a variety of quick language activities that are designed to develop grade 2-4 students' associative-reasoning and problem-solving skills. The activities in the workbook cover vocabulary development, classifying, sequencing, following directions, and word recognition. Sections of the workbook are Categories; Ordering;…

Based on the idea that knowing which words to use and how to use them are keys to an individual's getting the most from his or her mind, this book aims to improve people's vocabularies. To find out which words should be known, research into the vocabularies of educated adults was conducted by "The Princeton Review." Newspapers from…

"Tooth and Nail" is a novel that teaches vocabulary for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in context. Rather than presenting lists of vocabulary words to memorize, the mystery novel presents some 1,200 words, which have appeared in past SATs, in context. The story, about going off to college, features a literacy treasure hunt involving…

This book provides information about reading and reading instruction from kindergarten through the elementary grades that is specific enough to be helpful to anyone who is, or will be, teaching reading. Chapters in the book are: (1) The Reading Process; (2) The Reading Teacher; (3) Reading: Silent or Oral?; (4) Easing Young Children into Literacy;…

This study examined non-traditional methods in teaching spelling and vocabulary using music and rhythm in instruction. Subjects were 4 at-risk students in a class of 29 students in a seventh-grade classroom at a middle school in Marin County, California. A musical component was added to instruction as part of the seventh-grade students' processing…

This article describes the need for a test of the first 1,000 words of English, the essential vocabulary for simplified teaching material. It examines the development of basic word lists and the difficulties involved in testing the first 1,000 words. It then presents 2 versions of a 40-item true/false test that can be used to determine what…

This study hypothesized that an intervention program that would develop students' language facility in lower elementary school might increase the students' likelihood of retention. An outgrowth of a family literacy project which focused on raising the literacy level of an Appalachian community, the study used the Language Experience Approach which…

A practicum aimed to improve the basic sight vocabulary of second grade Chapter 1 students by implementing poetry activities and dictionary skills. Eight students were introduced to a new poem and 2 vocabulary words each week, for 12 weeks, receiving 45 to 50 minutes of supplemental instruction, 4 days per week. Assignments were keyed to the…

A study investigated the hypothesis that high frequency words can be effectively specified when word shape data are combined with available contextual clues. To test this hypothesis, an augmented contextual restriction task similar to one used by R. N. and L. R. Haber was employed. The task differed in terms of increased passage difficulty and the…

The three tests that make up this instrument are designed to assess the oral communication, grammatical fluency, and vocabulary development of students for whom English is a second language. The spoken English test comes in two versions: one with 90 items on a cassette tape, the other with 90 items to be read aloud by the examiner. Each version is…

The vocabulary development in the first 11 weeks of English acquisition by a 5-year-old Japanese girl was studied. The girl and her mother (a linguistic researcher) arrived in the United States at the start of the study. Lexical data from a language diary kept by the mother and from adult and peer sessions were pooled to produce a chronological…

The Language Experience Approach (LEA) to teaching reading in English as a second language is described. LEA uses the student's own experiences, vocabulary, and language patterns to create texts for reading instruction. Three stages are defined for assessing learners' levels of language use. The LEA instructional procedures are designed to be…